Dear Readers: The following letter from a reader prompted us to write this story. Please let us know how you feel about the whole issue.
“Dear KidNews: As I started my chores this morning, I thought why in the world are there African-American and Asian-American months and there are no Caucasian-American heritage months? There are just as many white famous people as those of almost every other race in America. Thomas Edison, Franklin Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Mark Twain and many others, for example. How often must the majority be refused just honors because there are more of them?”
Andrew W., 13
Why is it OK to have a parade celebrating African Americans or gay people, but not parades celebrating white people or heterosexuals?”
“Why do they have Take Our Daughters to Work Day, but not Take Our Sons to Work Day?”
Welcome to the world of “NOT FAIR!,” that place where people go ballistic when they see other people who seem to be getting special privileges.
Nobody likes to feel left out, so people might get way mad if they see other people getting “more” without considering why.
Take a parade for African-Americans. If you`re a white kid, you might not find it fair that you don`t have a parade specifically for you. But is it fair that African-Americans are often subjected to racism? Or take disabled-parking spots. You may not think it`s fair that you can`t park right in front of the store, but if you`re healthy, would it be fair for a person who has trouble walking to have to park far away?
So, sometimes being fair might mean NOT treating people equally.
We asked U. S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat, about why it`s fair to give minority groups special political consideration. He put it this way: “If parents have one child that is born physically and mentally normal, and another child that is born with a physical or mental handicap, you would not treat them `equally.` … They would be given the kind of love and equal opportunity that would be necessary to meet their individual and particular needs. That would be fair, if not equal.”
Therefore, those who have not had equal chances might need special opportunities to try to make things more fair – and that includes women, minority groups and disabled people.
Not everybody agrees. Some people say that society has evened the score enough that special privileges aren`t needed. Using that “enough is enough” argument, many people oppose affirmative action programs. (California has made news for halting affirmative-action programs at its colleges. The programs give special consideration to minorities to make up for past injustices.)
Frank Bertels, who heads a group called Male Liberation Foundation, says that because of affirmative action, women and blacks have more opportunity than he does as a white male. “A woman or a black would get a job promotion over me even if I have more experience or more training. It`s reverse discrimination.”
People also disagree about whether students should learn specifically about women`s and minority issues in special classes. For example, many colleges have courses in women`s history or black history, but opponents say we`d get upset if there were courses in white male history. Supporters of the special courses say history books have almost exclusively focused on white males and have forgotten to tell us about the cool things that minorities did in America – which is why we celebrate black and women`s history months, but not white or male history months.
“One day in the future, we will have human history,” feminist activist Gloria Steinem told KidNews. But first “we need to recover the knowledge of the female half of history for both girls and boys, men and women students.”
What about Take Our Daughters to Work Day, which lots of our female readers take part in – and some male readers complain about. Steinem defended the day, saying it`s a response to society`s traditional “emphasis on boys over girls.” But she said boys should have a special day too. It could be called Take Our Sons Home Day, for males to recognize that they can “take care of babies and young children and take pleasure in cooking or homemaking.”
